Series: The Taking #2
Author: Melissa West
Release date: August 13, 2013
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Genres: dystopia, science fiction, romance, paranormal
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On Earth, seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander was taught to never peek, but if she hopes to survive life on her new planet, Loge, her eyes must never shut. Because Zeus will do anything to save the Ancients from their dying planet, and he has a plan.
Thousands of humans crossed over to Loge after a poisonous neurotoxin released into Earth's atmosphere, nearly killing them. They sought refuge in hopes of finding a new life, but what they became were slaves, built to wage war against their home planet. That is, unless Ari and Jackson can stop them. But on Loge, nothing is as it seems...and no one can be trusted.
Review warning: I ramble a lot in this one and there are spoilers. Read on under the cut!
Review: In all honesty, I'm starting this review before I'm even half finished with the book. I can't say this series is going to stay as one of my favorites. The writing style is a bit choppy and awkward and focuses too much on the relationship issues between Ari and Jackson. Don't they have bigger things to worry about? We'll see what I think when I'm finished with the book.
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I finally finished the book! I read the book from October 3rd to November 3rd. That's an entire month and I read 5+ other books in that time. I just wrote a review on Goodreads and you can see my status updates here and it shows that I've wanted to drop it since I was 38% in. That's not good. But I pushed through! Not sure if I regret that. Back to the review!
My opinion did not get any better. Sadly, I removed the series from my favorites and I can no longer recommend it. It's weird for the sequel to be worse than the first book, not because of it being disappointing/forgettable but because the writing style is too much.
Ari thinks far, far too much. Especially for someone in her situation. I don't understand why she'd stop in these actual life or death scenarios to have 1-3 paragraph thought processes. It's annoying and I had to stop reading every time it happened. And it happened very frequently, at least a few times a chapter. She'd have revelations often too, the last being:
I glance up at her, and for the first time, realize just how lucky I have been that she was here. I might have lost myself a long time ago if not for her.
No, no, no. In the first book this woman, Cybil, is actually her enemy at the end. Ari saves her out of the goodness of her heart. Cybil has about five appearances in Hover and she and Ari barely know each other. What? Why are you lucky that she's there? The only useful thing she's done is rounded up the other operatives that she's working with? Please, no.
There are several plot mistakes as well along with plot annoyances. In the first part of the book, Ari is ordered to kill Zeus. She and Jackson get home and she immediately fires off "I need to kill him as soon as possible" and he says "No, no we need to think this through," but he gives her a gun anyway. The next day she goes to kill Zeus but he spins around as if he reads her mind. Because he does. Because Ancients have this device implanted into their head giving them the ability to read emotions and thoughts. Yet, Ari freaks out about this mishap for at least 2 chapters. Ari, he can read minds. You knew he could read minds. Please, stop. But after her failed murder, Jackson completely changes his tune to "We have time to think this through," but they really don't because their planet is dying.
The plot mistake I mentioned before - Mami (Jackson's grandmother, Zeus's wife) and Emmy (Mami's sister) show Ari the Unity Tree which is a port that Zeus doesn't know about. After they show it to her, she goes home and waits for Cybil who busts in with urgent news about Zeus knowing about Plan A (but he really knows all of their plans!!) and says "Just make it to the tree, okay?" at the end of the chapter though Ari didn't once tell her where it was.
Fast forward to the ending, Zeus magically knows where the Unity Tree is (though it's hidden) and had unsuccessfully tortured Ari about around the middle of the book for the information.
Sighs heavily, I just can not at all with this book, it's such a huge disappointment. I don't even like Jackson anymore. I really want to like these books! The action scenes are written very well and the characters develop well (that meaning Ari and Jackson develop well and I appreciate their relationship especially after Ari got over herself) but this plot. Ari's super-long thought processes. I can't - couldn't - enjoy it.
Rating: 2/5 stars
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